Hey, people! Wanna' hear something pretty cool? (You're probably thinking it's hard to get cooler than this little hot-shot and her rockin' dress up outfit, am I right? Understandable.)
WE FINISHED OUR HOMESTUDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now, for those of you wondering, "What in the world is a homestudy and why in the world does it matter?" let me fill you in. :)
The first big part of the adoption process is the homestudy where it's determined whether or not you can be legally approved to adopt. So since November we have been filling out lots of paperwork, getting physicals and TB tests, writing a short autobiography, having friends fill out reference forms, reading some assigned material about birthmothers, watching some adoption education videos, doing 10 hours of adoptive training, paying the homestudy fee (about $2800) and spending time with our social workers answering lots of questions about our marriage/parenting/family background/etc. The final part of the homestudy is a visit where the caseworkers come out to your house to make sure it's a safe place and that's what we did today soooooooooo...we are legit!
I'm sure everyone's experience with a homestudy is different, but we found it to be fairly easy and enjoyable, just time consuming. But the reason why this is so awesome is that now we're one HUGE step closer to bringing home our baby/babies!!!! Super exciting stuff!
Our next steps are to apply for grants (we need about $10,000 before we will start applying to agencies...I'll explain that in another post), then apply to agencies, then wait to be matched with a birthmom! We really have no idea how long these next steps will take but we're excited to be one step closer today!
God's been so faithful to get us here! We are so excited!!!!!!
Now, for those of you wondering, "What in the world is a homestudy and why in the world does it matter?" let me fill you in. :)
The first big part of the adoption process is the homestudy where it's determined whether or not you can be legally approved to adopt. So since November we have been filling out lots of paperwork, getting physicals and TB tests, writing a short autobiography, having friends fill out reference forms, reading some assigned material about birthmothers, watching some adoption education videos, doing 10 hours of adoptive training, paying the homestudy fee (about $2800) and spending time with our social workers answering lots of questions about our marriage/parenting/family background/etc. The final part of the homestudy is a visit where the caseworkers come out to your house to make sure it's a safe place and that's what we did today soooooooooo...we are legit!
I'm sure everyone's experience with a homestudy is different, but we found it to be fairly easy and enjoyable, just time consuming. But the reason why this is so awesome is that now we're one HUGE step closer to bringing home our baby/babies!!!! Super exciting stuff!
Our next steps are to apply for grants (we need about $10,000 before we will start applying to agencies...I'll explain that in another post), then apply to agencies, then wait to be matched with a birthmom! We really have no idea how long these next steps will take but we're excited to be one step closer today!
God's been so faithful to get us here! We are so excited!!!!!!
